We are doing a colourbond roof, and have decided to do the windows and gutters in Monument, and the roof and garage door in Basalt. Fascia in Shale Grey. Keeping with the Greys that throw a neutral or slight blue to accentuate the greys in the brick. We have a huge shed coming shortly, most of which is the shale grey, with basalt roof/doors and monument trimmings (matches the house!) What are your thoughts? Have you chosen your colours yet? I feel lile Windspray or Dune would also look great with the bricks!

Haha wow very similar to what we picked! Your color choices sound like a great combination. We are also using colorbond. Roof and garage door will be in shale grey. My partner was keen on a light roof but if I had my choice it would be basalt. Windows and gutters will be monument. Our shed will be shale grey with basalt roof.

Are you also building on a rural block?

Haha! (wow great minds...) Yes ours is in country NSW but just a lifestyle block a little over an acre. I feel like our shed might take up most of the block!

That's excellent! Good luck with your build :-)

Thanks, you too! Keep me posted on the brickwork when you get going... photos!!

Hi do you have pictures of the wall?

The brickies are due to arrive any day now... I will post some pictures when the house is done!

Please do

Hi, we are currently looking at these bricks. Does anyone have photos that they could share? Thanks!

These are the wall samples at the brick shop. I will post close ups of selected colours too

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Ours are a special mix of Ember blend and cloudy silver. Here are some little walls that the brickies made me, with different mud colours to see what I prefer. Basically the mud is grey, or greyer.

Thank you Daley83! Would love to see photos as your build progresses. It’s a lovely brick.

me too

I love san Selmo bricks, I am building and used the cloud silver brick. Unfortunately the builder used the wrong colour mortar and the bricks were not laid the way I thought they would. I’m also now concerned that the brick is not suitable in a marine environment but I can’t seem to get the same answer from the brick company or the builder.

What happens when your builder does his own thing........,Off white mortar mixed with yellow sand. And there is absolutely no consistency in the brick pattern. It should be mixed with white sand. Big difference, big mistake! And the builder couldn’t care less.

thats terrible. stupid builder. I've contacted san selmo re their bricks - their service from italy was excellent! he text messaged me 30 odd pictures and answered emails/texted really quickly. if you need to speak with italy direct: ivan.levorato@santanselmo.it but I assume that probably doesnt help you now.

pmp21 - At first I was thinking about white washing my bricks in that provincial look - I know it would be a huge pain in the butt but maybe even using lime to go over the mortar to make it lighter? Or maybe you can convince your builder? Building a new house isn't cheap, you should be happy with the results.

I put my house on hold and fair trading got involved and they said it was contractual . Anyway my beautiful bricks have been wrecked all because this builder didn’t listen and even austral bricks rep came out and said that the bricks have not been laid in a consistent manner but when I asked him to put in writing he sat on his brick fence. I would never ever recommend this builder to anyone.

That looks fantastic!!

Congratulations you have quality bricklayers and builder. That’s exactly what they are supposed to do. My partner has his own bricklaying business and is so disgusted with the workmanship and lack of consultation my builder and the brickies have had with me.

We have recently used the San Selmo Reclaimed bricks on a Barn Inspired Home we are currently building. The bricklayers love them!

We have used them as the zero lot wall, pool wall, entry wall and for the office component of the build. Looks incredible, client couldn't be happier.

We are about to have the San Selmo smoked bricks laid (opaque slate colour). Do you have any photos of your bricks after they dried, Daley83? I'm just wondering how the mortar colour looked as it dried lighter. I'm trying to decide between an off white colour and light grey. But if it is a grey I want a cool grey not a warm grey. Also, the issue of white vs yellow sand -- does that only matter with white/off white mortar, or should it be white sand with grey as well? My husband has only gotten yellow sand and the brickies are coming tomorrow (Thurs) to get started. We are only using the smoked bricks on feature areas -- the chimney (and fireplace inside) and a "blade" near the entrance of our house. Any advice most welcome! Thanks! Kat

Definitely do not use yellow sand! Use white sand and off white mortar.

My husband and I are planning to build using the Cloudy Silver brick with a raked finish but unsure of mortar colour: whether white or grey. Any advice and would anyone have any pictures? The San Selmo smoked brick range is fairly new that there aren’t many homes to reference. Many thanks.

Not sure where you're located however I think that the newly built Sebel in Margate Pde (cnr McCullough Avenue) Margate (that's on Redcliffe Peninsular Qld) has used Ember Blend as feature walls externally in combination with painted and raw concrete, rusted sheeting etc.

Thanks for the info but I’m in Melbourne Victoria. I did contact Ivan at San Selmo as provided from the earlier post and he was most helpful by sending plenty of pictures of the smoked bricks range. But cloudy silver doesn’t seem that popular and had the least photos among the range available.

We used a black oxide in our mortar mix with our opaque slate San Selmo with a flush joint and it look so beautiful. Absolutely stunning! I will take a picture and put it up when I get a chance.

Hi all, this is opaque slate with off white mortar and white sand. First photo in sunlight and second in a little shade. I think the camera highlights the contrast between the lighter and darker bricks more then when seeing it in ‘real life’. Hope this helps!!

And a few more photos, once again you can see the difference between sunlight and shade.

Lovely!

Hi pmp21, I refer to your post on 25 May 2018 and was wondering how is it all going with your brick build? Hopefully all sorted? I note the colour of the bricks in your picture is quite different to the Cloudy Silver that I’ve seen samples of at the Austral Brick showroom. Was that because like you said the bricklayers didn’t lay it right? Sorry to ask this if it brings bad memories of your experience. But we have chosen cloudy silver too and just wanted to make sure it’s still a good choice. Thank you.

Hi just wondering how the house is looking Daley83? I am looking at very similar colour choices, I would love to see a photo of your house, I'm down in Tassie so only one other house built so far in these bricks that I can look at.
Cheers.

I really loved this brick when we found it and I still do, but I do have some comments about it. Unfortunately my design brief for a "fireplace hearth" in my farmhouse for my firebox turned out much bigger than expected, but that's another story. As far as the San Selma smoked cloudy silver brick is concerned the brick layer didn't like it much. It was a bit crumbly for him. There are even a couple of cracks already inside the brick hearth. We will have to be careful when securing our mantle piece to it. I don't know that I would do a whole house in this brick. As far as the look of the brick I love it. Its earthy, and suited my farmhouse profile inside and out. It does matter what colour the grout it. It really matters. I wasn't too happy with the grout choice by the bricklayer and should have taken more care to think about it. It's darker than I wanted. Take the time to work out what grout looks best. The same as you would pick a paint colour. We also struggled to choose a colorbond roof colour for where the outside of the brick was seen. We chose Windspray. Doesn't match perfectly as windspray is more yellow/green undertones....(something we are learning as we go along) but it's only a small area seen and hopefully we will find a paint to blend it all together.

Jane Ferns - what colour have you used for your roof please?

By the way - bricks look amazing!

I'm not sure if you are asking me what colour we used for our roof? It was colorbond Windspray but we haven't painted the outside timber yet to be able to see if it will all come together. I will post when it gets painted in a few weeks. The windspray is supposed to look close to galvanised iron in some light. It does look like that in some. weather.

The brick hearth looks better than the photo with the wide rustic blackbutt floors which are yet to be waxed.

sorry, just realised you were asking Jane Ferns :)

Hi mn mn!
Sorry I haven’t been on here in ages (too busy building!!). We used monument roof and windows too. We are very happy and receive many compliments about them.

Can I ask those who have used the San Selmo smoked bricks. Any special brick laying instructions? I was told no pressure wash and no acid clean. But I’m confused with the acid clean info, I’ve received mixed info, - some said ok , some said no. Would like to confer. Thanks!

Thought I'd share some photos of our retaining wall with the Ember blend for future buyers. This forum was a life saver when we were trying to decide on bricks, considering the bricks can look so different in different times of day and lighting. These photos are taken in broad day light but not with full sunlight hitting them. The mortar is white (needs a bit of a wash though, still mid build stage). Loving them so far!!

Is that sheet placed on top your roof colour? What colour is it?

Hi Jane Ferns, Bricks Look amaxing. im about to startbto lay mine. any chance you could take a closer up picture of them? Also what finish didnyou go for, raked, rounded or flush? appreviate if you could help!

Hi Range and Daley83, Can you tell me where you have taken the photos of the walls you posted at the beginning of the thread for the San Selmo Ember Blend? I assume they are Austral display walls but where?